From: <DKokopelie@aol.com>


Toys R' Us - Oct. 30/1999 10am-3pm

Hello. My name is Danny Marx and I have been in the Pokemon League for a few 
months now at the Zany Brainy store in Highland Park, Illinois. When the 
actual Boulder Badge League started the previous Gym Leader recognized my 
friend and I of being superior pokemon players so at the age of 14, my friend 
and I became Gym Leaders and got cool T-shirts. I have been happy there for a 
while and now that I just turned 15, I can get a job there which I am 
currently working on. Although, it just wasn't enough for the fact that I 
couldn't find any competition and they wouldn't even hold a tournament so I 
could show off my skills. I've gone through many decks and still haven't 
lost. Then my friend Rob, the other Gym Leader found out that another player 
in our school was good at pokemon. Calvin told me about the Toy's R' Us 
tournament every Saturday. So this will be the first of many tournaments I 
will attend.

Since it was the first tourney they had, they limited it to only 16 people. 
The first 16 to sign up would get in. It was a double elimination tournament. 
You play bracket style until you have two people left in the bracket and in a 
single elimination tourney they would normally play for the finals. They sit 
and wait while the losers play until there are two winners from the losers. 
One looser plays one winner while the other looser plays the other winner. 
Then those two winners play for the $30. Second place gets $10. Not bad for 
having no entry fee. Each match is best two out of three.

Here's the deck I used:

The Kicking Fiend
4 - Scyther
3 - Hitmonchan
3 - Electabuzz
2 - Hitmonlee
2 - Mr. Mime
2 - Aerodactyl

4 - Bill
4 - Gust of Wind
3 - Mysterious Fossil
3 - Professor Oak
2 - Scoop Up
1 - Computer Search

14 - Fighting Energy
9 - Electric Energy
4 - DCE

My friend Rob, who was the other Gym Leader couldn't come, but Calvin who had 
never beaten me was there. We were on opposite sides of the brackets so we 
wouldn't have to play unless we played in the finals. There was also one Gym 
Leader from Toys R' Us in the tourney while the main Gym Leader of Toys R' Us 
would play the winner for 200 points in their book and four prerelease 
Aerodactyl's.

Round 1: Me VS Kid who I later became friends with

Battle 1: He was playing a water/fighting deck, which wasn't bad, but still 
needed much improvement. I had Mysterious Fossil on my bench and Scyther out 
in play. He started with a Magikarp and Poliwag on the bench with a 
Hitmonchan in play. Haha. He only got one fighting energy so he couldn't do 
anything. He also made a big mistake by evolving to Gyrados with no energy on 
him. After that I got out Aerodactyl so he couldn't evolve anymore. Because 
of his energy problems I quickly beat him off.

Battle 2: He started with only Magikarp and I had Scyther. I slapped a 
fighting energy first turn and a DCE second turn. Game, set, and match.

Game Record: 2-0
Match Record: 1-0

My second round opponent was ready for me literally 2 seconds after I was 
done. We were the first two to finish.

Round 2: Me VS Young kid named Zachary who also went to Zany Brainy

Battle 1: Now here was a surprise. This 8-year-old kid had a pretty good 
water/fighting deck with Hitmonchans and good water cards. This battle went 
rather quickly because he started with a Jigglypuff and I started with a 
Hitmonchan. I win in two turns.

Battle 2: I started with a horrible hand and only got one pokemon with all 
the wrong energy. It was Hitmonlee. Slowly, he hurt Hitmonlee while I killed 
his first pokemon, but Hitmonlee couldn't do it all himself. He finished off 
Hitmonlee and won the battle. A shocked person, me, had to have a final 
battle.

Battle 3: Now his mom was watching. Our side of the bracket was moving much 
quicker than Calvin's side so Zach and me decided to take our time, but it 
didn't matter how slow we went. He had the same problem as me, but only with 
Hitmonchan. And slowly, but surely I finished it off.

Game Record: 4-1
Match Record: 2-0

Now this was interesting. My third round opponent was also ready shortly 
after my match. He was my age, which made me a little worried. Not a single 
match on the other side of the bracket was finished because Calvin was 
playing a stall deck. The kid I was playing now, Matt, was greatly feared by 
the other kids because of his "skill." It made me worried, but I felt that 
they feared him because they hadn't met me yet.

Round 3: Me VS Matt

Battle 1: He was playing a weird version (crappy version) of stall. I can't 
believe I was worried. I defeated him quickly with my Hitmonlee when he got 
fully powered up.

Battle 2: We found out that you didn't need to play with the same deck the 
entire tourney so he tried to make a haymaker quickly. He shouldn't of. It 
sucked. Game, set, match, me.

Game Record: 6-1
Match Record: 3-0

Well, now I got to rest for a while. A long while. The head leader said it 
would be at least an hour. It ended up being more like two. My sides loser 
bracket started and the winner that emerged was the kid I played in the first 
round. (Only because I helped him out against Zach with letting him use my 
deck) So I had to play my semi-final match against him. By now the other side 
was at their winner bracket finals and had started the loser bracket finals. 
The winner of that loser bracket would just play the looser of the winner 
bracket finals. The winner bracket finals was Calvin VS the other Toys R' Us 
Gym Leader, Tony. Calvin whooped him up quickly. So Calvin and I were the 
only two undefeated in match record. We both ended up playing our first round 
opponents in the semis.

Semi Finals: Me VS Kid I played in first round

Battle 1: Beat him in two turns with Electabuzz.

Battle 2: Beat him in two turns with Hitmonchan.

WOW! That was the quickest and most unlucky match for him I had ever faced.

Game Record: 8-1
Match Record: 4-0

Since I had won so quickly I had to wait 30 minutes for Calvin and his stall 
deck to win. There was only five minutes left and JR, the main Gym Leader 
said it was almost over so we would continue with the finals next week. I was 
so confident and had beaten Calvin a few times before and couldn't keep my 
big mouth shut. I said I could beat him in five minutes. He let us play, but 
it was only one game for the match. Which means that if you get a bad hand, 
oh well. You would have to settle for the second place prize of $10. We had a 
big crowd around us and we got rolling.

Calvin's game record: 8-0
Match record: 4-0
Danny's (Me) game record: 8-1
Match record: 4-0

Finals: Me VS Calvin

Battle 1 for the Championship: I should have kept my big mouth shut. I got 
all the pokemon, but no energy. I had a bad hand. I should of waited till' 
next week. Oh well, I guess I would take a shot. It was a much longer match 
than I had expected. Eventually he got his Alakazam out with his Scyther 
dealing damage in play. I got energy, but way too slowly. I had a professor 
and even though he was playing stall, I needed to use it for I was going down 
the drain. I also used two Bills afterwards. Big mistake. I got better cards 
after that and I started killing some of his pokemon. He still hadn't killed 
any of mine, but I was down to ten cards. I only needed to kill three more 
pokemon. Could I come back? Could I pull off the miracle? This was intense. I 
had one card in my hand. He used his killer Imposter on me. I was shocked. I 
had to draw seven cards. That gave me four turns to beat three pokemon. I had 
no chance. Four turns later, shocked, frustrated, and much more had to settle 
for $10. I had actually lost by a fluke. I played him later the next day and 
beat him. I will get my revenge with my new deck next Saturday.

Danny's Record:
Game Record: 8-2
Match Record: 4-1
Place: 2nd